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Strongman Trap

If a woman or child comments on a male character's physical strength, it's a trap.

Name Space:Main

Page Type:Trope

Suppose you're watching a show with a male hero. He meets a woman or child, often by saving them, but it can just be a non-danger-related encounter. The first thing the woman or child comments on is the hero's physical strength.

At this point, they might as well have suffered a Glamor Failure, because you're screaming at the screen that Its A Trap. Women and children in fiction never comment on a male character's physical strength unless they are trying to trick him.

While this trope is sometimes Played for Laughs as obvious false flattery, usually the male character really does have prodigious strength. It makes one wonder whyonly people who are trying to trap the man ever comment on it.

Often, the woman or child will be hiding some sort of Super Strength or other superpower of their own, in which case, it is their way of tricking the male character into thinking they are not a threat.

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